Alumni Notes Winter 2018

Dear CHOP Alumni Family,

Remember our CHOP Alumni Motto: Keep … Tradition, Keep … in Mind, Keep … in Touch! And so I begin:

Keep … Tradition: The wintertime allows us to plan for all of the exciting spring events hosted by the Alumni Organization. This March, we will welcome back Ann-Christine (Tina) Duhaime as this year’s Pediatric Alumni Organization Grand Rounds speaker. Dr Duhaime is the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the Nicholas R. Zervas Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. Although we traditionally invite a pediatrician back for this event, and, technically, Dr Duhaime is not a pediatrician(!), the selection committee remembered Dr Duhaime’s wonderful contributions to pediatric education and care during her tenure at CHOP. We are looking forward to her visit. We will also be planning for our annual not-to-be-missed reception at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Toronto in May. Please make sure to join us if you will be at the meeting this spring.

As for Keep … in Mind: Please remember that we have started an Alumni Organization website! I encourage you to explore some of the new content, including news and articles as well as information about upcoming Grand Rounds presentations and other events. And now, getting involved with the Alumni Organization has never been easier, more rewarding, and impactful! In addition, we continue with For Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in our 162-year history. There are many ways to support the campaign, and EVERY dollar will be earmarked to area(s) you are most passionate about. Feel free to reach out to Molly Force, CHOP’s Alumni Organization liaison, at 267-426-6457 or alumni@email.chop.edu for more information.

And finally, Keep ... in Touch! We love hearing from our alumni — so please email me with news. I recently heard from Prabha Viswanathan, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist in the Division of Antiviral Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), at the Food and Drug Administration. Prabha completed her pediatric residency at CHOP (2006), and subsequently worked as a pediatric hospitalist before continuing her post-graduate training as a pediatric ID fellow at Children’s National Medical Center. Dr Viswanathan has been serving as a medical officer in CDER since 2010 and has been a member of the Division of Antiviral Products since 2012. She is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in general pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. She loves the work she does, although could never imagine that life would take her in this direction. She would love to hear from anyone interested in learning about careers in public health and about the process of pediatric drug approvals (prabha.viswanathan@fda.hhs.gov).

Congratulations to Erin Simon Schwartz, CHOP neuroradiologist, who was recently elected as a fellow of the American College of Radiology in recognition of her contributions to the field. She is also the newly elected secretary of the American Society of Neuroradiology.

We mourn the passing of 2 faculty members: Dr Jessica Panzer, a pediatric neurologist and expert in pediatric movement disorders and central nervous system autoimmune disease; and Dr Carole Marcus, Director of the CHOP Sleep Center and the CHOP Clinical and Translational Research Center/Center for Human Phenomic Science.

That’s it for this column … but I need more exciting announcements to include in the next issue of Children’s Doctor. So please email me at christian@email.chop.edu, and you too, can be famous!

Best wishes always,

Cindy W. Christian, MD

President, CHOP Alumni Organization